Yes Chugalug, I well remember the Jackaroo. In the 1950s there was a great demand for cabin tourers so the tubular centre section of a war surplus Tiger Moth was removed, cut longitudinally along one side, and widened to accommodate two narrow seats. The Tiger control box, a wooden structure about six feet long and housing the two sticks internally linked by a tube, remained in its original mounting so pilot and instructor sat on the left. In plan view it resembled a tadpole and had ample room for four Hobbits, though I never tried it with four humans.
As far as I recall about 20 were so converted, among them G-APAO which I borrowed for a trip to the islands of Islay and Colonsay, landing on the golf links, an area of rough pasture slightly less rough than the other pasture. The long travel undercart and fat wheels easily coped with the rabbit holes.
The Jackaroo handled like a Tiger but its fine-pitch airscrew (low geared, if you like) gave a cruising speed of only 70 mph at 1850 rpm, with corresponding reduction in range. On the other hand, two-up it leapt into the Atlantic breeze in four or five times its length. About 30 years ago -- wearing my grease-monkey overalls rather than my flying set -- I had a hand in converting her back to a Tiger Moth. She now flies in RAF Training Command colours.
The Auster Autocrat offered better performance but wasn't as nice to fly, with a nasty habit of dropping its wing when landing in gusty conditions. Within a few years Cessna and Piper made their appearance and the fabric covered taildragger almost disappeared until today, when folk pay big money to fly something which nobody wanted a few decades ago. But then I suppose they said the same about Rembrandt's creations.
Thing, I'm average build but found the Tiger Moth as comfortable as any other motorbike. I made a padded storage box to replace the seat parachute and had no back troubles in some 400 hours but sea crossings perched on a dinghy made for a numb bum. Long afterwards I had a shoulder problem which I'm sure began with prop-swinging, though now it's faded among all the other aches and pains. Longest trip was Paris and back, 1100 miles non-radio in happy days when one didn't need ATC clearance to visit the airfield loo ...
While on the Tiger theme, may I remember my first instructor A.C.H. (Tubby) Dash, AFC, the medal awarded for his services to flight training. He had many hundreds if not thousands of hours on Tiger Moths and he could almost make them talk. At war's end he moved from Shorts at Rochester to Shorts in Belfast, where he ferried new aircraft to the Far East as well as instructing the firm's flying club.
Tubby consumed whisky as a Tiger Moth drank petrol and would often be completely relaxed by the end of the evening. Despite this one could set the clock by his 0955 arrival the following morning. He told me one day that around 1949 he had ferried a Sealand amphibian to the Middle East using a school atlas, maps not being available. He instructed until he was 80, and to my knowledge no pupil in his care came to harm in his last 30 years of tuition.
When Tubby died around 1982 we decided to pay tribute with a Tiger Moth triple formation. Rehearsals showed that this required considerable effort but on the morning I think the old aeroplanes knew, for BZ failed to develop her frequent mag drop, IT started instantly despite being warm, and DP did not flood her carb as usual. Summoned from a discreet distance by secret signal (bedsheet waved from rear of the crematorium) our tight vic puttered over the cemetery at 500ft, or maybe a little lower. The best bit was receiving a letter from Tubby's widow thanking us for the lovely surprise and saying that nobody could have given him a finer sendoff.